Mentally ill patients are victimised by bedroom tax rules which fail to recognise the severity of their illness, according to a health campaigner.

Pam Jenkinson, manager of Crisis House in Wokingham, said the mentally ill were falling foul of welfare reforms because they did not slot into simplistic gradings of physical disability used to assess benefits.

She is disputing rules that deny mentally ill people the space to allow a carer to stay with them overnight.

Mrs Jenkinson represented a woman suffering from depression, anxiety and anorexia at an unsuccessful appeal against an under-occupancy ruling at Reading County Court last week.

Mrs Jenkinson, president of Wokingham Mental Health Association, said: “I believe a person qualifying for the high rate does not require a second bedroom where their carer can sleep overnight, because a person needing a lot of care has to have a waking carer in the same room in order to receive the frequent care necessary.

“Such people may well require extra space in which to store oxygen cylinders, wheelchairs, dialysis equipment but it is actually people like this lady who need a second bedroom so they can get day care and night care, from time to time, as needed.”

Mrs Jenkinson, who is 68 and has campaigned for mental health patients for 50 years, said she was now applying for the higher rate allowance for the woman, who suffers from insomnia, suicidal thoughts, needs encouragement to eat and occasional medical treatment during the night.

She said: “The mentally ill do not slot into the simplistic pattern of physical handicap.

“Those who make the rules don’t seem to have a clue about mental illness, although it is so terribly common.

“It is so easy to make a ruling if someone is in a wheelchair because you can see the disability.”

Volunteer-run Crisis House, in Station Road, offers support, counselling and a drop-in centre and relies entirely on charity.

John Ferguson, Wokingham’s Citizens Advice Bureau manager, said they were seeing an average of two people every week with under-occupancy concerns.

He said a shortage of properties in the borough prevented people moving, even if they wanted to.

He said: “Although there are 644 one-bedroom and 1,019 two-bedroom social rent properties in Wokingham borough, people in those properties tend to want to stay there because of the bedroom tax.”

A spokeswoman for Wokingham Borough Council said: “The rules for bedroom tax, or spare room subsidy as the Government call it, are set by central Government – not Wokingham Borough Council.

“The council is bound by the rules and has no control over the criteria or how the legislation is applied.

“While we cannot talk specifically about individual cases, in this instance the judge ruled the council administered the rules correctly and disallowed the appeal.”